Sunday, July 29, 2012

There is no doubt that Christy Clark's stand on the Northern Gateway pipeline has appeal for a lot of BC voters. A column by Bob Plecas, a progressive BC political hack, is a good example:

... Enbridge calls for tough political policy. A fair share of $80 billion of government revenue would help feed our insatiable thirst for social programs. [Feeding an insatiable thirst is a good thing?]

... I was reminded about what Enbridge is really about when the province's child advocates recommended a $10-a-day child care program. Price tag: $1.5 billion per year. Who wouldn't favour this? [Are you kidding?]

... Clark did the right thing, and the honourable thing.... [No, just the opposite.]

Clark's politics on this amount to foolish, petty provincialism. No doubt it will appeal to a lot of BC voters but it sure isn't showing courage or leadership. Seeking to extort money from Alberta to pay for BC social programs is not "honourable" in any way. A shakedown for a supposed "good cause" is still a shakedown. Ends don't justify means.

This deplorable thinking, if accepted, opens the door to similar sorry action by other provinces. Will Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba demand a "fair share" of lumber revenues for lumber being shipped to eastern markets? Will BC retaliate by demanding its "fair share" of revenues from Saskatchewan potash being shipped through its ports? There's no end to the ill-will that would surely result. It's nuts and no way to run a country. There's a good reason it's unconstitutional.

Christy Clark is embarrassing BC. She and her anything-for-a-vote brain-trust, which I assume includes backroom fools like Bob Plecas, should be ashamed of themselves.

Jonathan Kay writes that Canadians having a net worth $40,000 higher than Americans spells bad news for Canadian small-c conservatives. Based on his very selective interpretation of events and the opinions of RINO David Frum, the ever-progressive Kay concludes:

... [Canadian] “Third Way” politics, or you can call it Statism Lite, or you can call it, as Marche does, hardheaded socialism (a term I really like). But the fact is: It’s what works in developed post-industrial economies — both in Canada and Scandinavia. ... fantastic news for Canadians. But it’s weird news for the Canadian conservatives. ...

... Add up a one-third drop in U.S. real estate, a 50% rise in oil prices and a 15% increase in the value of the Canadian dollar and it’s hardly surprising to find the financial position of Canadian households has improved, measured against the Americans. It would be astonishing if it hadn’t. But how exactly does this make the case for the comprehensive superiority of “the Canadian system,” let alone “hard-headed socialism”? ...

Actually those priorities are worse than just upside-down, they’re a cynical disgrace. And Stephen Harper should at least put hisourmoney where his mouth is. (Actually, it would be best if both of these projects and others like them were funded entirely through private donations. Leave the taxpayers out of it.)

They and their ideological leaders argue that the marketplace should dictate what businesses thrive and falter, not Washington.

Commenter, "Lawrence" had this to say:

Implicitly, progressives believe the precise opposite.

Conservatives and progressives both accept that some businesses will succeed and some businesses will fail.

Progressives believe that the government should pick the winners and losers.

Conservatives believe that the free market should pick the winners and losers.

It's not about preventing failed businesses; for progressives it's about control. As Orwell put it describing the totalitarian impulse, they want to "usher in a hierarchical society where the intellectual can at last get his hands on the whip."

Those who believe that the government should have such control ignore several insurmountable problems.

- The problem of morality. Individuals have the right to self-determination and the right to property, and therefore the government has no moral authority to micro-manage their lives or their businesses.

- The problem of information. A cadre of experts may be smarter than any similarly sized group, but NO group can ever obtain the vast amount of distributed information that is processed by the price system, much less act on that information in an intelligent and timely fashion.

- The problem of incentives. The free market rewards businesses that provide goods and services that people actually want, and the greatest success is reserved for those that provide what the public sees as the best combination of high quality and low prices. The government rewards businesses that help the incumbents secure reelection, and it's only a coincidence that this work to maintain political power ever corresponds to meeting the real needs of the general public.

- The problem of the historical record. NO society in human history has ever taxed itself -- or regulated itself -- into prosperity. Even the authoritarian regime of the Chinese Communists have stumbled into modernity by freeing up the market, not through yet another disastrous and murderous Five Year Plan.

The ONLY thing that recommends collusion between Big Government and Big Business is the psychological appeal: it reassures the leftist of the high-mindedness of his oh-so-good intentions while feeding the more reptilian desire for control of other people.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

British Columbia's Climate Action Plan perpetrated by Gordon Campbell in co-operation with Arnold Schwartzenager and others a few years back is still running full-speed-ahead. It's full of junk science and climate alarmism.

... In hindsight, it was a case of identity theft, an act of historical vandalism. A quarter-century ago, 13 members of Parliament hastily -- some say indecently -- renamed the country's national birthday in a swift bit of legislative sleight-of-hand.At 4 o'clock on Friday, July 9, 1982, the House of Commons was almost empty. The 13 parliamentarians taking up space in the 282-seat chamber ... The whole process took five minutes. ... a private member's bill from Hal Herbert, the Liberal MP from Vaudreuil ...

JR on:

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"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C. S. Lewis